Transport, Planning and Lands Minister Rita Saffioti has announced that the WA State Government has assigned the Westport Taskforce, chaired by Nicole Lockwood, to do the long-term planning for a new outer harbour at Kwinana.

The multi-agency will create a long-range vision for the planning, development and growth of the inner harbour in Fremantle and the new outer harbour in Cockburn Sound.

The taskforce is to deliver a ports and environs strategic plan that will comprise of experts from multiple state agencies, such as transport, finances, planning, employment, and the environment.

The taskforce will plan the size and location of the new port, the timing and the operating model, and rail and road links to the Kwinana port.

I was given a copy of an eight-page flyer The Truth About The Flawed Outer Harbour Plan, written by the Maritime Union of Australia WA Branch secretary and National President Christy Cain.

It’s always good to try to see all sides of an argument, so let’s have a look at the facts the MUA published in the leaflet.

# The MUA claims that Fremantle Port is only running at 50% capacity and that there is no need for a premature costly duplication of the port at Kwinana.

# The MUA supports the long-term vision of an overflow port at Kwinana when it is needed, but say it is not needed yet, and that the volume at Fremantle Port has been falling for some time.

# The proposed cap on Fremantle Port is lower than the current volume and would be anticompetitive, the union claims. It would prevent the current terminal operators to grow.

# 90% of containers to and from the port are on the road between 6am-6pm Monday to Friday. The port operates 24/7 but nearly all containers are handled in just 35% of all the hours available.

# Better coordination of road transport, plus general decline in volume has seen a 11% reduction in truck visits to Fremantle Port over the last two years.

# Rail is underutilised as is handles only 14.5% of containers, while it is designed to carry 30% of container traffic.

# The MUA says that if the outer harbour was built now, 20-30 years before it is needed, it would add $ 10 billion to the construction cost, making it a $ 15-16 billion dollar dud, that would cause a dramatic increase to freight costs.

# The outer harbour would be automated and would have less jobs than Fremantle Port.

# Government Treasury predicts another 25 years of growth potential for Fremantle Port. It stated that artificial capping would result in earlier capital investment in the Outer Harbour and related road and rail infrastructure-imposing an unnecessary financial burden on the WA Government, container trades and the community.

If you have any questions it is best to contact the MUA as I won’t have the answers.

In a comment to this blog I was chastised last week for believing articles published in the West Australian and media in general, but today’s article about the WA Labor state conference, shows that it was not fake news after all.

It is a great worry for Fremantle Council that the South Quay development plans, they wanted to realise in collaboration with the state government, are put in jeopardy by the right-wing new faction Progressive Labor, that got a motion passed on the weekend at the Labor state conference, to delay the development of a new port at Kwinana because it would cost jobs on the wharf.

According to union secretary Adrian Evans Fremantle Port is only running at 50 per cent capacity and hence a new outer harbour would only be needed in 20-30 years from now.

Development of Victoria Quay and connecting it better to the Fremantle inner city would be fantastic, especially with the imminent development of the Woolstores shopping centre site.

The Pacific Eden cruiseliner floated into Fremantle Port this morning and since the P&O Line has announced they will no longer call Freo home, I thought to capture this historic moment of one of the last P&O cruiseships in Fremantle.